When Eve Palmer first began to plant her hot hillside garden in Pretoria over thirty-five years ago, she knew instinctively what she wanted – the wild trees of the South African countryside. Although indigenous trees had not yet become fashionable and not much was known about their cultivation, she set out, undaunted, on a lifelong experiment that was to culminate in two major pioneering works on the subject.
Into her garden, then, came trees remembered from her Karoo childhood, trees described by travellers, trees renowned for their medicinal or magic uses, trees rich in historical association. Later came their natural companions – the wild ground covers, climbers, creepers, shrubs. Only one foreigner – the rose – was admitted.
In Under the olive she pays a personal tribute to the trees and plants of her garden and the pleasures they have brought her: shade and shelter; shape, foliage and bark; flowers and fruit; colour; scent; food; birds and butterflies.
The catalogue of her pleasures – “holds upon happiness”, she calls them – is interwoven with a wealth of anecdotes, reminiscences, sketches of people and most readable book will be a source of inspiration to experienced and would-be gardeners for a long time to come.
